The bumper carrier and the hood lock carrier generally provide a significant contribution to the rigidity of the front section of a motor vehicle body and are designed for absorbing substantial deformation energy in case of a collision with another vehicle. However, this means that they are generally not significantly deformed during a collision with a pedestrian. In order to also protect pedestrians, it is necessary to arrange regions that are easier to deform in front of these two carriers, and these regions are deformed during a collision with a pedestrian and able to absorb the pedestrian's impact energy.
DE 10 2005 020413 A1 discloses a front body for a motor vehicle, in which a radiator grille is supported on a bumper carrier and a front element that is not described in detail. Since the radiator grille in itself is rigid, it is proposed to provide a flexible ledge with a flexible undercut region on an upper edge of the radiator grille with a bellows that collapses during a collision with a pedestrian and therefore allows a pivoting movement of the otherwise rigid radiator grille. Since this edge region has small dimensions in comparison with the entire radiator grille, it is difficult to provide this edge region with a sufficient energy absorption capacity that fulfills the legal requirements with respect to the protection of pedestrians.
Attempts to ensure a sufficient protection of pedestrians have resulted in front body constructions, in which the hood lock carrier is set back relative to the bumper carrier and an edge of the hood that protrudes over the hood lock carrier can be deformed with relative ease in order to yield in case of a collision with a pedestrian and to thusly decelerate the pedestrian. Although it was determined that the hood respectively yields with relative ease at the beginning of the deformation, the deformation resistance increases significantly as the deformation progresses. In order to improve the protection of pedestrians, it would be desirable to reduce the dependence of the deformation resistance on the extent of the deformation.
The invention aims to develop a front body for a motor vehicle that ensures an effective protection of pedestrians with simple means and solves or at least diminishes one or another of the above-described problems. In addition, other aims, desirable features, and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent summary and detailed description, and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.